24 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. Caldwell said that salt was useful to the plant as a solvent for other 

 material and not as a direct food. Salt, whmi pure, does not draw moisture, 

 though when impure it may. Its apparent effect in this direction results from 

 its preventing too rapid evaporation and too rapid absorption by the plant. J. 

 S. Woodward stated that potassium chloride was largely used in Connecticut in 

 peach orchards for a supply of potash. Nitrogen is applied in the form of 

 sodium nitrate during spring and summer. Ellwauger and Barry keep pears in 

 a house above a cellar and the walls filled with straw. The house freezes but 

 little. The pears are kept injboxes of about a bushel. Apples are kept in bar- 

 rels in the same house. Catawba is the favorite grape in that section. They 

 complain that the Worden is not a good shipper. 



t Evening Session. 



The first topic for the evening, " Rotation in Fruit Plantations and Garden 

 Crops," brought out but little. A. G. Gulley believed that a rotation of fertil- 

 izers was more practicable and useful than a rotation of crops in small fruits. 

 In the garden, rotation is sometimes necessary to avoid injury by insects, and 

 perhaps for other reasons. No rotation is necessary with onions for ten or 

 fifteen years at least — it is a mere matter of manure. 



The remainder of the time assigned to this topic was taken up with miscel- 

 laneous topics and questions. 



S. R. Fuller : I would like to ask if anyone has had experience in mowing 

 and burning strawberry ground after fruiting ? 



W. W. Farnsworth : I mow the tops of my strawberries after fruiting, then 

 cultivate and manure, but do not burn. 



E. Baur : My practice is, as soon after picking as possible to harrow up the 

 old straw mulch and set fire to the bed. I have practiced this successfully four 

 years. 



W. W. Farnsworth: The Baldwin apple is not hardy enough with us. Is 

 it failing ? 



H. E. Vandeman : I am just from meetings in Iowa and Kansas, where the 

 matter of hardiness is of the greatest importance. Some there advocate top 

 grafting on hardy stocks. Others do not, thinking that it makes no differ- 

 ence. 



T. T. Lyon : The Baldwin kills in some places in Michigan. I think there 

 is but slight advantage in top grafting. The hardiness of the Russian varieties 

 is due to their ability to withstand the summer by reason of their peculiar 

 foliage. This cannot be changed by top grafting on another stock. 



A. A. Crozier : Is it not true that the bodies of trees are more liable to be 

 killed than the smaller limbs, so that if this were of some hardy variety the 

 tree might be saved ? 



W. W. Farnsworth : Cannot the bodies be protected in some manner to pre- 

 vent this injury ? 



C. W. Garfield : I think I have known of cases where the large limbs were 

 killed even more than the bodies. 



T. T. Lyon thought the injuries mentioned more likely due to disease in- 

 duced by exposure to excessive heat and cold on portions of the trunk not 

 shaded by the branches, and that this injury could not be prevented by grafting. 



